Being moon-blessed with Desire with a unique side-effect of gift-borrowing made me very picky about who I shared that part of myself with. Sometimes I’d even tried holding myself back so the transfer wouldn’t happen, and with some lovers that wasn’t too hard…but that quickly lost its appeal. It wasn’t until Atlas had come along that it’d really changed for me. My gift didn’t intimidate him. He’d loved seeing how I wielded it. For the first time in my life, I could be myself completely, without worry or judgment.
“I don’t know… I think I was intohimbeing into it. Maybe I’m going crazy.”
“Look, sis,” Hazel said, putting down another folded outfit and clasping her hands together, as if about to give me another sisterly lecture. I’d seenthe lookmany times over the years. “Sexuality comes in all different flavors. Sounds like you both were into it.”
“I’m not surprised that I am…” I mean I had been with Saros and Lynx together and there had been plenty of watching and participating happening. “But Atlas? He isn’t the sharing type.”
He’d always been extremely possessive. We never even went out into a public forest in our time together—always staying in his property’s private woods for our moon rituals.
“Yeah.” She pursed her lips a moment, as if to stop herself from saying something. “And just because he was turned on doesn’t mean he’d ever be willing to act on it. Maybe he was really into seeing your body all hot and bothered after it being a no-fly zone for him the last year.”
She waggled her brows, trying to lighten the situation. Then they lifted, something mischievous glinting in her chocolate irises. “But if he was somehow willing to share—”
I held up a hand in protest. “Atlas and I can’t be together, and I don’t know if anything is possible with Lynx and Saros past this investigation. It’s not worth going there, even hypothetically.”
A tiny fist smacked my drained breast, and I looked down, finding Aspen’s chestnut gaze and single-tooth smirk. Then he chomped down on my nipple.
“Fuck!” I screeched as piercing pain shot through my entire chest. I pulled him off immediately, checking for blood, sure a chunk was missing at a minimum. There was none but, Goddess, that fucker was sharp.
Aspen eyed my other swollen boob, reaching out and leaning his face forward. I inhaled some courage, holding my breath, then switched him to the other side. He wrapped his arms around my breast, latching tooth-free instantly.
Thank Goddess. Teething was a monsterfucker.I exhaled loudly.
My sister just stared in horror at the entire exchange.
“I love that little witchling, but he’s a great reminder of why I’m good with being gremlin-free for life.” She returned to her folding while I leaned back, enjoying the comfort of the tightness leaving my chest while Aspen fed.
“Anyway, maybe this whole thing happening at Luna’s is a sign that you need to talk. To Atlas. To them. You can only avoid this for so long.” Hazel’s tone was calm but firm—the one she took on when she really wanted me to listen. “Especially Atlas.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We are supposed to take Aspen around the neighborhood trunk-or-treat tomorrow.”
“That sounds like a perfectly fun time to talk,” she joked.
I wasn’t laughing. The fact that he’d canceled our walk-through of Mystic Square tonight was a small blessing, though. I had no idea what I would say. How would I face him and not think back to the fierce way his stare penetrated my soul and twisted from wild rage to intense pleasure?
“Any chance you want to come with?” I asked with a silent plea.
“I’ll pass.” Hazel chuckled. “But I’ll totally snap some cute pics of that family costume before you head out.”
Aspen finished his feed, and I laid him down in his crib before going over to help her put away the small stacks of his clothes. The side of my hand brushed hers, and she sucked in a breath. In an instant, I wasn’t in the nursery, I was in a large black bedroom.
A mop of wild brown tresses spilled over a pillow, a hairy leg half hanging out from beneath the comforter.
Oh Goddess, please bring me out of this. If I was about to watch my sister get railed, I wanted to tap out. Immediately. Knowing about her superfluous sex life was one thing, witnessing it was another. Some things were better left to the imagination.
Everything felt warm. Comforting. Hazel turned away from the man that lay next to her, hand running over the other lump in the bed. The comforter moved and twisted around it.
“I love you,” a feminine voice purred, eerily familiar—not Hazel’s, though.The words came out genuine, sincere, and I could somehow feel the realness of them.
“You don’t love me, you just love how I fuck,” Hazel replied coolly.
I cringed, though I also had to give her props, my sister had the alpha-female thing down.
The comforter jostled, and the woman straddled Hazel, writhing against her.
My mouth went slack. The reality of this memory crashed into me like a tsunami, knocking my foundation off its axis.
Aurora Wells.
